Indicator



E. K. BOTTLE INDICATOR Filed July 10. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

E. K. BOTTLE Oct. 11, 1932.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

BY M,

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Get. 11, 1932 UNITED STATES IPATENT OFFICE I EDWARD KIBBYBOTTLE, O1 ELHIRA, N EW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN SALES BOOK TORONTO,ONTARIO, CANADA, A -GORIEORATION OF ONTARIO,

comrhm'z, LIMITED, or

cus s.

INDICATOR Application filed July 10, 1830. Serial No. 467,037.

This invention relates to an indicator and checking device havingimproved structural and functional characteristics, and capable of usein numerous different associations,"but

5 primarily intended for employment in record or inscribing machines andspecifically autographic registers.

In connection with registers as heretofore constructed, it is understoodthat it has been customary to provide a record comprising for example aplurality ofsuperposcd layers of inscription receiving material whlchrecord is disposed in a register or similar apparatus, passed over aninscribing station forming part of the same and thereupon suitablydisposed of. With a view to simultaneously preparing a pluralityofcopies by a single inscription upon the .uppermost sheet or strip of thepile, it is moreover customary to interleave between these strips layersor webs of copying material as, for example, carbon paper. These layerswhen of proper quality serve accurately to provide duplicate records upto a certain number. Thereafter, however, due to the exhaustion of thecopying material, the lower records are not in certain instances asclean-cut as might be desired. For this reason, it is customaryperiodically to shift the layers or webs of copying material so as topresent a fresh surface, but in many instances, an operator, due tonegligence or absent-mindedness, does not attend to this shifting; thisresulting in faint or otherwise imperfect copies.

With this in mind, it is an object of the invention to provide anindicating structure which as aforestated may be employed in variousassociations, but is primarily intended for use on autographicregisters, and by.

means of which, for example, an operator is automatically advised aftera certain number of inscribing operations that it is necessary to shiftthe copying material so that perfect records may be assured.

A further object of the invention is that of constructing a registerapparatus which will prevent a further operative manipulation of itsmechanism after a certain number of inscribing operations until afterthe operthe face of the upper layer 13 o atog has shifted for examplethe copying we s. 4

A still further object is that of providing a mechanism of thischaracter involving a relatively sim 1e construction embodying few andrugge parts, these parts being capable of ready association with a.register or similar apparatus as at present constructed,

and without the necessity of modification of such apparatus. Moreover,by means of the present invention, a mechanism is furnished which willoperate over long periods of time with freedom from difficulties andwhich will function properlyeven in the hands of an inexperiencedoperator.

With these and further objects in mind, reference is had to the attachedsheets of drawin s illustrating one practical embodiment the invention,and in which:

. "Fig. 1 is a-fragmentary side elevation of a register;

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof;

Figs. 3 and 4 are partly sectional side views of the indicating andlocking mechanism employed and showing the same in different positions;and

Fig. 5 is a plan" view of one of the elements of such mechanism.

In these views, the reference numeral indicates a base of the apparatusfrom which side walls 11 extend upwardly to su port a deck 12 providedwith an openin g This record is disposed within the casing of theregister and is fed acrosstlie inscribing station provided by theopening in the plate by'means of any suitable apparatus such as forexample a friction drive indicated in dotted lines at 14 which ismounted upon a shaft 15 turned by a crank 16. Cooperating with thisdrive is a friction roller 17 mount.- ed upon a support 18 normallyretained in position by a catch 19. When so retained, proper cooperationbetween the record and the drive is assured, and when released, theplate 12 may be swung around its hinge 20 y releasing the catch 21.

Moreover, connected with the-shaft 15 or any other suitable part of theapparatus is a ratchet and pawlconstruction (not shown) aminf a recorwhich prevents an operator from accidentally turning the shaft 15 in awrong direction, it being thus apparent that as the crank is'rotated,the, record is fed forwardly the distance of one pack of sheets.Thereafter, it is usually necessary to release the stop pin 22 in orderthat the crank may againbe rotate the pin thus serving to prevent anover ceding of the latter. i

One of the carbon layers orother copying strips has been-indicated at23, this strip extending between the plate and the side wall, and beinginitially wound upon a roller 24:. This layer or any desirable number oflayers may be interleaved between the layers of the record extendingtransversely thereof and as afore brought out, it is necessaryperiodically to shift the copying material.

Now with a view to providing a mechanism which will serve to indicatethe necessity for such shifting and/or to prevent further manipulationof the register until such shifting has been achieved, it will be notedthat in the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the I shaft hasbeen extended and terminates in an enlarged screw threaded portion 25.Extending parallel to the axis of the shaft is a rod 26 upon which isslidably-mounted a cam 27 having a threaded portion 28 curved'tocorrespond to the curvature of the enlarged portion 25 and to cooperatewith the screw threads of the latter. The edge 29 of the cam-beyond thisthreaded portion is developed in the form of a wedge shaped surfaceterminating in an outwardly extending lip orledge ortion 30. Anydesiredmeans may be provi ed for assuring cooperation between the-threads ofthe edge 28 and theenlarged portion 25. In the embodimentunder consideration, a-weight 31 has heenemployed for this purpose andis secured to the lower portion of the cam, and to one side of the shaft26. Additionally, the cam' may carry a rod 32 having a signal in thenature ofa flag 33 at its outer end, it being apparent that if the partsmove-to the position shown in Fig. 4,this signal will bein a positionsuch that the, operators attention will be directed 2 and 3, theoperator'may, in the usual manner inscribe the record and periodicallyfeed- -the same by means of the crank 16 or other driving elementprovided for this purpose.

Upon'each revolution ofthe shaft, 15, the cam will move inwardly alongthe rod 26 to a distance corresponding to the distance be tween theconvolutions of, the thread upon the enlarged end portion 25. After apre determined number of operative cycles of the feeding cmechanismwhich n ay be 15 more or less as desired, the cam which has initiallybeen set at the outer, end of the por tion 25 willfeed along therod 26until it rides within the recess 34 formed in this enlarged portion andinterrupting the threads thereof. When this occurs, the

weight or other shifting medium will serve will be understood that thecam edge'29 cooperates with the enlarged portion 25 in a plane above theaxis of the latter and consequently wedges thereagainst. However, thisis only an illustrative form of device for accomplishing the desiredfunction and it will be understood that other forms may be substituted.

It will be noticed that the record feeding mechanism will be checkedafter each record feeding cycle by engagement of the crank 16 with thestop pin 22. This feedin cycle of the feeding mechan'ismmay be de ned'as a."

suflicient operation thereof to move the record's orrecordstrlpssufiiclently to bring new sets of forms or inscription areasinto wr ting position after inscriptions have been made upon the nextadjacent advance set of forms. In the embodiment shown this feedingcycleis completed by a single revolution of the feed shaft 15 but itwill be understood that other forms of feed mechanism maybe used whereina feeding cycle may be completed by fractional revolution of the feedshaft or by a plurality of revolutions'thereof, the invention beingindependent in this respect of the precise form of feeding mechanism.

Furthermore, it will be sen that the indicating and feed checking meansis operated to perform its indicating and checking functions only aftera predetermined number of feeding cycles of the feeding mechanism; in 1other words, the checking and indicating functionsare completed inresponse to a plu raIit'y of feeding cycles. After the feed has beenthus checked and the indicator displayed, the operator may reset theparts and to do this the top plate 12 maybe swung upwardly afterreleasingthe catch 21 thus rendering'the interior mechanism accessibleto release the inner pawl and ratchet construction referred to to anextent sufiicient to permit resetting the cam 27. In other words the cammay then be shifted to a point at which-its screw threaded portion 28rides in contact with the first convolution of the threads upon .theenlarged portion 25. vHowever resetting of the cam 27 may be moreconveniently accomplished merely by swinging it in a clockwise direction(Fig. 1, 3 and 4) until the screw threaded portion 28 moves upwardly todisengage the threads of the en-- larged portion or worm whereupon thecam is freed and may be slid outwardly along the supporting bar 26independently of movement of the feeding mechanism. The slot 34 may beformed to permit this disengaging clockwise rotation of the cam 27 fromits locking position in which the detent 30 is wedged against the bottomgof the slot. While the parts are open for," releasing the ratchet orotherwise, the carbon may be gripped and pulled forward topresent afresh copying surface. Thereupon, by simply swinging the support 18downwardly and engaging the catch 19 after having swung the plate 12 toclosed, position, the machine is again ready for operation upon the stoppin 22 being released and this cycle of operation is repeatedindefinitely.

Thus, among others, the several objects of the invention as aforebrought out are achieved. It will moreover be understood that numerouschanges in construction and rearrangements of the parts might beresorted to without in the slightest departing from the spirit of theinvention as defined by the claims.

Having described my invention, what'I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is:

1. An inscribing machine including a feeding mechanism to shift arecord, an indicator, and indicator actuating means responsive only to apredetermined plurality of actuating cycles of said feeding mechanism toindicate a predetermined condition with re-' spect to said machine.

2. An inscribing machineincluding a feeding mechanism to shift a record,means operating in response to a plurality of feeding actuations of saidfeeding means to prevent a further operation thereof, and signallingmeans associated with said last named means to register the condition ofthe latter.

3. An inscribing machine including a shaft, record feeding meansconnected to said shaft, and means also connected to said shaft andoperating in response to a predetermined plurality of feeding cycles ofsaid feedin means to prevent further movement thereo 4. An inscribingmachine including a shaft, record feeding means connected to said shaft,an indicator connected to said shaft and providing a visual signal, andmeans responsive to a predetermined plurality of feeding cycles of thefeeding means to display said visual signal.

5. An inscribing machine including a record feed operating shaft, meansfor rotating the same, and means associated with said shaft and havinglocking engagement therewith after a predetermined plurality of recordfeeding cycles of the latter to prevent further movement thereof.

nected for rotation by said shaft, said memher being formed with aperipheral recess, and a locking dog in engagement with said thread andshiftable automatically underv the rotation of said shaft to extend intosaid recess whereby to prevent further shaft movement.

8. An inscribing machine including an operating shaft, means forrotating the same.

a screw threaded'member secured to and moving with said shaft, saidmember being formed with a recess, means in engagement with such screwthread and shiftablc to extend to a position to drop within said recessand signalling means actuated upon said last named means occupying aposition within said recess.

9. An inscribing machine including a record feeding shaft. means forrotating the same. a screw threaded member operatively connected to saidshaft and formed with a recess adjacent its thread, a rod extendingparallel to said shaft and adjacent said memher, and means slidablydisposed upon said rod and bearing against the threads of said member-to ride within said recess upon said shaft bei ng rotated apredetermined number of times, and said means preventing furtherrotation of said shaftnpon its coming to extend into said recess.

101 An inscribing machine including a record feeding shaft, means forrotating the same, a screw threaded member secured against movement \vihrespect to said shaft and formed with a recess interruptingcertain ofthe convolutions of Its thread, and a cam member cooperating withsaidthread and shiftable to extend into such recess, saidtain of theconvolutions of its thread, a cam member cooperating with said ,threadand shiftable -,to extend .into sucherecess, said. cam

' member having a portion of its edge threaded and curved to conform tothe curvature of said first named member, and an extended I lookingengagement with one ofthe end walls of said recess.

12. In an inscribing machine, in combination, a record controllingmechanism, an indicator having operative connection for operation bysaid controlling mechanism, and means included in said operatinconnection for controlling the indlcator or response only to apredetermined plurality of record controllingcycles of said recordcontrolling mechanism.

13. In an inscribing machine, in combi-- nation, a record feedingmechanism, alooking device for checking operation of said feedingmechanism, and means operating only in response to a lurality pf'feedactuating cycles of said fee ing mechanism to cause actuation of saidlocking device to check further operation of said feeding mechanism.

14. In a record machine, in combination, record feeding mechanism, meansforchecking said feeding mechanism after a feedin cycle thereof, andmeans for checking sai feedin mechanism in response to a plurality offee ing cycles thereof.

15. In a record machine, in combination, record feeding mechanism,automatic checking means for checking saidfeeding mechanism after eachfeeding c'ycle thereof, and automatic checking means. controlled by saidfeedin mechanism in response to a plurality of fee ing cycles thereof.

16. In a record machine, in combination,

record feeding means including a shaft, an

indicator, and operating. connections between said shaft and indicatorfor operatin the latter in. response to a predetermined p urality offeeding cycles of the shaft to indicate completion of said cycles.

of, an indicator for said material, and means for actuating saidindicator rlodically in response to a plurality of eed actuations ofsaid record feeding means.

.20. In an inscribing machine, in com bination, means for feeding arecord having copying material between the. layers there'- of, anmdicator for said material, means'for actuating said indicatorperiodically in re 17. In a record machine, in combination,

a record feeding shaft, meansfor rotating said shaft, a screw threadedmember operatively connected to said shaft, a locking device for saidfeeding shaft, and operating means for said locking device including anoperatin member inoperative engagement with sai screw thread and oerative to set said lockingdevice after a p vance thereof by saidthread.

18. In a record machine, in combination,

. a record feeding shaft, means for rotating settin said shaft,'a screwthreaded member operatively connected to said shaft, a locking devicefor said feeding shaft rating means for said locking device incl di ngan operatin member in operative engagement with said screw thread andoperative to set said lockin device after apredetermined advance thereoby said thread, and. a support for said operating member mounting it formovement to'disengage the threads topermit reof said operating member.

19. n an inscribing machine, in combination, means for feeding a recordhaving copying material between the layers thereetermined adoperation ofsaid feeding means r a plurality of feeding cycles-

